Aristotle on the Perfect Life

Anthony Kenny

Aristotle on the Perfect Life

Anthony Kenny

Description

Aristotle's teaching on the subject of happiness has been a topic of intense philosophical debate in recent years; it is of vital importance to the question of the relevance of his ethics in the present day. Aristotle's admirers struggle to read a comprehensive account of the supreme happiness into the Nicomachean Ethics; Kenny argues that those who are prepared to take the neglected Eudemian Ethics seriously preserve their admiration intact without doing violence to any of the relevant texts of the Nicomachean Ethics. Kenny has refined his position on the relation between the two works, offering a fresh examination and interpretation of the Eudemian Ethics on the basis of the 1991 Oxford Classical Text. He combines scholarly discussion of the Greek texts with reflection of the topics covered by Aristotle, taking account of post-Aristotelian treatments of themes such as moral vocation and moral luck.

Aristotle on the Perfect Life

Anthony Kenny

Reviews and Awards

"Kenny succeeds in posing several specific challenges to prevailing assumptions about Aristotle's two ethical treatises....An important contribution....[Kenny] once again deserves thanks both for his vigorous scepticism and for his forthright discussion of such basic issues."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Will occupy a prominent position in the current flood of books on Aristotle's ethics....Highly recommended."--Choice